With the introduction of Microsoft retail stores the Redmond giant also decided to introduce its own line of PCs called Signature PCs. These are typically machines selected from other manufacturers such as Sony or HP.

Usually when you buy a pre-built machine or laptop one of your tasks when you turn it on for the first time is going through and removing all the pre-installed applications the manufacturer decided to include. These typically range from 30-day security suite licenses, photo editing packages you’ve never heard of, limited versions of games, and some annoying toolbar software. All this unwanted software has been given the fitting name of crapware.

Microsoft Signature PCs do not contain crapware. However, that statement is dependent on what you class as crapware. More specifically, Signature PCs do not contain any non-Microsoft or Adobe software. Instead you get the full range of Microsoft Live services including Windows Live (Messenger, Mail, Galery etc.), Zune 4.0, Silverlight, Bing 3D Maps, and Security Essentials, as well as Adobe Flash and Reader.

Whether you appreciate the focus on Microsoft products or not depends on your software preferences, but for many it will make a nice change.

If Microsoft wanted to be really nice then they would have just included links to the software rather than installing it all on a PC. With software like Flash you could end up shipping a machine with a security risk preinstalled as the version is out of date. Why not just bring up a welcome screen that directs you to the latest downloads and then gives you the option to get everything or nothing?

Crapware exists to boost the profits of manufacturers who sell PCs with tiny margins. Software vendors pay to have their apps preinstalled and that’s the reason they push so hard for you to buy a license. I have never met anyone who appreciates these apps being there and some of them can be a nightmare to uninstall (a process made easier by free apps such as Revo Uninstaller).

Just having Microsoft software to deal with is a better scenario in my view and if the price is comparable to other PCs you are considering it may be a nicer experience on first boot. Still, giving users the option at point of purchase of buying a clean Windows 7 machine would surely attract some positive feedback and potentially more sales.

Reader Comments

BT

Give Microsoft a break here — they try to do something right for the customer and you bash them for installing 3rd party applications like Flash because of potential security risks? Give me a break. This is the best thing for the customer to start their PC and not have to download, install and accept dozens of license agreements.